Harper: Kingston, blueberries and capital

Last Saturday, Congressman Jack Kingston made a semi-announcement at a Forsyth County GOP meeting, putting him the closest publicly into the race for U.S. Senate with the already-announced U.S. Rep. Paul Broun.

The records of Broun (R-Just Vote No) and Kingston (R-Subcommittee Chairman of Appropriations) will be a study in contrast, and Kingston will receive little appreciation for his 20 years of service from Tea Party groups because of it.

Tea Party leader Debbie Dooley was already prepared with lists of Kingston’s quotes to declare him an establishment candidate, while others were prepared with lists of individual earmarks.

The one most highlighted was listed as “My personal favorite is the $209,000 spent to improve Blueberry production. Sounds important.”

Well, blueberries are Georgia’s fastest growing agricultural product, with the state producing three times as much revenue from them as peaches. It would seem that research (most likely spent in a local university) to figure out how to do a better job of growing blueberries would be a good thing for the state.

Much of the breakthroughs in science and technology come from grants issued to universities and other research organizations through a grant process funded by the federal government.

Entire programs such as NASA exist on the principle that expanding the envelope of knowledge has a greater social benefit than the cost. Yet they would likely not exist if left solely to the market forces of the private sector.

That’s where the question of venture capital comes in. I oppose the creation of another economic development fund to put the state in the venture capital business.

One of the longest lasting damages of the past five years of bailouts will be the codification of the concept that America privatizes its profits, while sharing the losses of capitalism with the public.

For capitalism to succeed long term, this concept must not.

Those backing the idea of the venture capital fund will cry that most profits will be returned to the state. But they must acknowledge that all losses will be as well.

When the state decides it can mimic the private sector by creating and funding for-profit enterprises, we have left the realm of public good and are picking individual winners and losers. That’s something that can’t be justified.

Charlie Harper lives in Atlanta and edits the Peach Pundit political blog.